Former Federal Finance Minister, Ishaq Dar has said fairs and exhibitions are a must to put economy on track as the exhibitions are tools to identify the untapped potential of key sectors of the economy and to introduce Pakistani merchandise in international market.
He was speaking at LCCI Investment Conference at Expo Centre, here on Saturday. He said that the country has no dearth of resources but these resources needed to be utilised properly. He said that Lahore Shopping Festival would give considerable boost to economic activities in the country. It has created a positive image of the business community. He said that the Lahore Chamber and Industry (LCCI) has very rightly focused on key sectors like agriculture, construction, power and information technology. He, however, urged the business community to adopt modern business practices, which hold the key to economic turnaround.
President LCCI, Shahzad Ali Malik while giving his presentation "Unlocking Growth and Investment Potential in Agriculture" stressed the need for promotion of private sector's investment in agro food sector to tackle growing food shortages. He said that despite having impressive rankings in agro food sector Pakistan has serious undernourishment as the agriculture growth has failed to keep pace with the needs of the population.
He said that encouragement to the private sector could do the miracle as because of private sector, rice exports have registered a quantum jump. He said that the hybrid technology has changed the face of the world grain production. He said in USA, China and Indonesia 100 percent grain corn in hybrid while as much as 80 percent of total production of rice, canola and cotton is being done through hybrid technology in China and India but unfortunately in Pakistan zero percent cotton is being produced by hybrid technology and the percentage of corn and rice is only 40 and 6 per cent respectively.
Honorary Consul of Australia, Salim Ghauri, who is also Chief Executive Officer of NetSol Technologies, spoke on IT potential and said that though Pakistan's IT industry took 25 years to earn world acknowledgement but it is very encouraging for the country that at this point in time when most of the world is importing IT technology from China, Pakistan is exporting the technology to China.
Ghuari said that a little attention by the government could help IT companies to help them position themselves globally to take advantage of India's rising costs. He, however, identified a few challenges including lack of exposure of local IT companies to foreign markets and law and order situation in the country.
Former Chairman All Pakistan Contractors Association, Akbar Sheikh said that the construction sector has marvellous investment potential as the country needs 0.5 million units annually while only 0.3 million are being built adding 0.2 million to the backlog. He said that the city of Lahore alone needs 50,000 new houses every year.
He recommended that the government should promote Public Private Partnership (PPP) and REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust) mode of private sector investment to cope with fast increasing backlog of housing units. He said that the government should also encourage higher density by encouraging multi-storey construction. He also called on the government to expedite approval of construction projects besides encouraging representation of private sector in regulatory/approval process to give a real time boost to this important sector of economy.
SAARC Vice President Iftikhar Ali Malik, former Chairman Wapda, Tariq Hameed, Engineer, Faiz Muhammad Bhutta of Izhar Group, Usman Sakrani of Makro and DG PBIT Sajid Yoosufani were among the experts who presented their papers on Investment opportunities. Hassan Amjad and Awais Piracha also spoke on the occasion.